What If? The Line
by Darling Pretty
Summary: Addison obsesses over a very imaginary line. Alex refuses to acknowledge any such line exists. Oneshot.


**So I've been throwing together a lot of stories at midnight when I'm supposed to be getting sleep lately. This is one of them. Enjoy it.**

**This is another one of those What If oneshots. This one? What if the vanilla latte moment had gone uninterrupted?**

**For once in my life, after seeing the promo for Grey's, I'm actually HAPPY I have no hand in its creation. I would be resigning if I had.**

* * *

"The vanilla latte? I did it on purpose," he informs her. She almost wishes he hadn't.

"Why?" she asks, afraid to hear the answer and even more afraid that it won't be the one she's looking for.

"Because he was rude to you."

Oh.

Wow.

She feels herself move forward, even as Sensible Addison screams at her that it's a bad idea. She sees him leaning and tries to shut Sensible Addison up. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. "Line," Sensible Addison croaks. Impulsive Addison curses in frustration internally.

He backs up a couple of centimeters, but she can still feel his breath on her face. "What?"

"There this, uh, there's a line," she stammers, trying not be drawn into his eyes and failing miserably.

"Yeah?" he asks. The smirk has, for once, disappeared. He looks good like this, she thinks, sincere and trustworthy. Like someone she could very potentially care for.

"There's a line and… crossing it." She purposefully leaves out the pronoun. Whether it's him, or them, or even just her crossing the line, the point is that there is a line and someone is crossing it.

His face clouds over. "Oh. Right."

She feels awful. "Alex, I," she tries to start, but he cuts her off.

"No, I get it. Fine. Did you need anything else, Dr. Montgomery?" Nothing hurts worse than the cold, impersonal Dr. Montgomery. She wants to hear him call her Addison.

She swallows, trying to get sound out around the lump in her throat. "Um, no, I- I'm fine," she manages.

He nods curtly and exits the NICU. Flustered, she nearly manages to squash Laura Grey. Fortunately, that doesn't happen. Cursing silently, she stalks out of the room.

0ooo0

She spends the rest of the day in the fog of an absolutely horrendous mood. All of the nurses have resurrected the term McBitchy for her, all of the interns attempt to stay out of her way, and all of her exes choose today to pester her. They just keep popping up, as if trying to avoid Alex Karev wasn't annoying enough.

It starts with Derek. Well, Derek and Meredith. She's stuck in an elevator with them and, unfortunately for her, they're in a flirty mood. Addison tries not to gag. She gets off the elevator before her floor just so she doesn't have to put up with it.

Then Mark decides to invite her out to drinks. He's trying to make up for the incident earlier, but he doesn't know that all the apologies in the world won't hold up against a single vanilla latte. It takes her fifteen minutes to turn him down definitively.

By the end of the day, all she wants is to go home. Or to the hotel. Whatever. Anywhere to get out of this hospital. Exhausted, she heads to the locker room to change out of her scrubs. As she pulls her top on, she hears someone come in. She looks to see Alex barreling towards her.

Her mouth drops open. "Attending locker room!" she sputters. It doesn't stop him. "Alex, the line," she says desperately just as he's about to kiss her.

"So that line you're talking about? It's imaginary. It doesn't actually exist." His lips are just as close as they were this afternoon when they had this conversation before. It's terribly distracting.

Once again, rather frantically, she says, "You're about to cross the line."

He grins. "So don't draw it," he replies simply. And then he plants his lips firmly on hers.

"We shouldn't," she protests, pulling away. "There's a line, and we're crossing it."

"Would you shut up about the damn line?" he explodes. "I don't care about a stupid, imaginary line!"

"I do," she says quietly.

"You shouldn't."

"But I do."

"Are you ever going to try to be happy?" he asks suddenly.

"I am happy."

He rolls his eyes. "Right."

"I am. Mostly."

"I don't think so," he insists.

"Why do you care?' she asks stubbornly,

"Because I do."

"That's not an answer."

"So?"

She stares at him for awhile, trying to discern any motive behind all of this. The words "Because he was rude to you" are echoing in her head. "What do you want?" she finally inquires.

He shakes his head. "I don't know." She nods slightly. "Drinks?" he invites.

"I already turned Mark down," she says. "It wouldn't be good…"

"Tomorrow," he says. It's not a question. She has a feeling that he's very good at getting women to do as he likes. She's not sure she has a problem with that.

She swallows and nods. "Okay, Karev. You're on."

* * *

**Like I said, thrown together at midnight. Not my favorite, but it's not my least favorite either. But the story would still like to feel love!**

**-Juli-**


End file.
